Category Archives: Fun

I met Michael Pereira a couple years ago through social media. We tried to meet on one of his trips to Paris the summer of 2013, but the stars we not aligned that year. This past summer though, in 2014, we managed to find time to get together. And I have to say… meeting Michael for the first time in person was nothing short of magical. It felt like we had been friends for years and years, and we slid into our new roles as friends, immediately. Meeting people like that comes along only a few times in a lifetime.

Michael has a magnetic field around him, I am certain. He knows how to draw people in, in a way that feels positive and easy. And that is how he approaches his dance students too. I watched an entire class (alas, at 8 months pregnant, I unfortunately couldn’t participate), and saw how he poured his heart, body, soul and sweat into communicating through movement with the dancers. Michael gives everything he’s got. And that is what has given him a steady following in just six short months of teaching Broadway Jazz in Paris!

Caroline Nin, « French chanteuse » as she is self described, is a jazz singer and has been practicing her art since she was a wide-eyed youth, off to concquor London. She traveled the world for 20 years singing in concert halls from Australia to America, and has now returned to her home town of Paris where she now shares her show Hymne à Piaf with the cosmopolitan Parisian audience.

Much to Caroline Nin’s delight a smattering of Frenchies peppered the 40 seat venue amongst an international crowd for this bilingual show. She promised to translate the show to French entirely if one day she could fill a 1000 seat Parisian theater full of Frenchies. But there is something magical in her mixture of French and English. I wouldn’t change a word of it.

In my hometown in New England, we always had an event in mid-December called the « Christmas Stroll ». It was a a time for the residents and those of neighboring towns to come and enjoy together the Christmas ambiance that was always so well exemplified in the decorations. The town (a village really) had a tiny little central « place » that housed the tall Christmas tree and the crèche de noël, and all the black and white façades of the boutiques on Main Street were spruced up with fir greens and red bows with pretty little white lights to accentuate the falling snowflakes that always arrived just in time. The shops opened late for the Christmas stroll and served or sold their best and most festive holiday wares. It was a place to run into your old school teacher, or meet up with past classmates, see old high school pals or towns people that you know and recognize for years.

While that may never happen to me ever in Paris, I did get to experience a different, perhaps more glamorous type of Christmas stroll and although there was no small town charm or reminiscing, there was plenty of holiday cheer and happiness shared between me and a darling friend who was enjoying it all for the first time. I couldn’t have felt a warmer Christmas glow if I had been at the foot of that New England village Christmas Christmas tree. Read more →

It was a cosy and charming party at Treize Bakery, tucked away at the back of a darling courtyard on rue des Saints Pèeres. Friends and fellow Paris bloggers came to help toast to me and my blog. Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement.

Laurel of Treize Bakery hosted us in all her hospitiable glory packed with her endless enthusiasm and warmpth. A true friend indeed, she also offered up a gift certificate for the free raffle at the end. Laurel I can’t thank you enough, you never cease to amaze me with your generosity. Read more →

WordPress:

My dear readers, its been at least two, maybe three years, (I can’t even remember that’s how long its been) that I have been sustaining a rhythm of publishing something for your Paris pleasure ever three days. These past several weeks I have been posting a lazy one time a week. Call it summer. Call it fatigue. Call it life. Sometimes Paris is just too delightful to remember to do one’s « homework ».

WordPress:

I met Alexis when I visited my ultimate dream apartment in Paris. He was the owner. He has since done away with luxury apartments and is now focusing his attention on something closer to his heart : all things made in France. Just a handful of months ago he opened up Gab & Jo (named after his two kids) where there is something made-in-France for everyone, EVEN for the FRENCH.

Alexis is incroyablement friendly and very enthusiastic. I met him at the boutique as he sauntered back from grabbing his lunch and a few macarons. He eagerly showed me around his boutique, excited about the smallest details and most delightful elements of his endeavor. Seriously, Arnaud Montebourg should come in to visit for inspiration. Read more →

Jukeboxes, slot machines, gum ball machines, gasoline pumps, Limoge porcelain statuetes of the Statue of Liberty made for the bicentennial of the USA in 1976, traffic lights, telephones, Coca Cola machines… these are just a few of the tings you’ll find at Vintage Gallery.

Patrick Guérin has a fantastic place on the boulevard Pereire in the 17th. An incredible collection filling every square meter of his gallery. I have been wanting to visit it for some time, but as I walk by it normally on my way home after opening hours, I usually satisfy myself with a little « lèche vitrine« . This time I happened by in the afternoon. Patrick is celebrating his 20th year there this year. Pretty fantastic for privately owned gallery in the 17th. But even better : he has decades more than that in Americana, artifacts, vintage objects and amazing things to decorate your life with. Vintage Gallery : Number 17 bld Pereire 75017 Paris. Tel : +33 (0)6.09.17.52.50. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 3pm-7pm or upon appointment. Read more →

Chéri and I went out to play on the last day of the carnival at the Grand Palais. It was a sugar-coated-colorful afternoon of playful diversion from daily life. I toted along my camera, knowing full well I was going to want to snap pictures like crazy. And I did. I have more in the flickr album if you don’t get enough here on the blog! Enjoy my shots and let me know which ones are your top three favorites in the comments below.